Federal Employees Step Up Defiance of Trump
The Hill
August 5, 2017
Government employees are growing increasingly willing to criticize or defy the White House and President Trump's top appointees.
A handful of current and former career staffers in the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have openly shredded their superiors within the last several weeks, continuing a trend that has developed throughout the government over the course of Trump's tenure in the Oval Office.
The growing opposition in the executive branch comes as the White House's legislative agenda has stalled in Congress and Trump turns to his Cabinet agencies to change course in several policy areas.
It also is emanating from career staffers or political holdovers whose resistance to Trump has, at times, been rooted in deep opposition to the president's agenda.
"From our point of view, it's kind of obvious," said Jeff Ruch, the executive director of the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) group, when asked about staffers' growing pushback.
"You have Donald Trump, who ran and said he would drain the swamp, meaning them."
More:
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/345404-federal-employees-step-up-defiance-of-trump
